A Surf & Turf Adventure
Wild Magazine|Spring 2017

How much action can one adventurer fit into a weekend in the Wilderness Section of Garden Route National Park? Wild joins the ride as Letshego Zulu zips and zooms through fynbos and forest to follow her passion.

Morgan Trimble
A Surf & Turf Adventure

Guinea fowl ring a persistent alarm and I crawl out of bed for a peek at sunrise. White blobs scroll across a pink sky over the Touw River. After some eye rubbing, the blobs become egrets in a regal procession hundreds of birds strong. But there’s no time to linger over the parade. Adventurer Letshego Zulu is here to demonstrate just how much action can fit into one weekend in the Garden Route National Park. We’re due for our first activity, a paddle upriver.

Reading Letshego’s adventure CV is an endurance exercise in itself. It’s bursting with multi-day bike races and ultra-marathons such as the Cape Epic, Joberg2C, Comrades and Two Oceans. You name it, she’s raced it. A veteran of Survivor Maldives and Fear Factor, Letshego’s current reality is whipping Joburgers into shape with her business, Pop Up Gym, when she’s not adventuring. But canoeing isn’t part of her usual regime. Letshego’s friend and fellow fitness fanatic Karabo Mashele, who joins us for the weekend, confesses she hasn’t canoed since school.

After a lesson in not capsizing, SANParks canoe-expert Manfred Beukes gently shoves us into the Touw River, Letshego and Karabo sharing a canoe and me on a kayak. We navigate upriver, past our cabins in Ebb and Flow Rest Camp, so named because the river rises and falls with the tides. We paddle against a brisk headwind then, as we round a bend, the river smooths into shimmering glass winding between towering forested hills.

Between exclamations of how beautiful the day is, how peaceful the river, and who in the canoe is not doing their share of paddling, Letshego and Karabo strategise about a new project, an online channel called Let’s Adventure intended to introduce South Africans to the world of activities in their own country.

Denne historien er fra Spring 2017-utgaven av Wild Magazine.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra Spring 2017-utgaven av Wild Magazine.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA WILD MAGAZINESe alt
Wild Magazine

Seeds of success

A champion at the indigenous nursery at Skukuza, Meurel Baloyi is on a mission to make all the rest camp gardens in Kruger water-wise.

time-read
2 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Wild Magazine

Six of the best

|Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park guarantees visitors a solid serving of adventure, often with a dash of adrenalin on the side. The rugged mountain desert now boasts even more outdoor activities.

time-read
5 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Marvellous  meerkats of Mata-Mata
Wild Magazine

Marvellous meerkats of Mata-Mata

Brace yourself to be welcomed suricate-style the next time you pitch camp at this ever-popular spot in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

time-read
3 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Wild Magazine

Who's who?

Even regular park-goers struggle to distinguish a rhebok from a reedbuck. The differences are subtle but significant.

time-read
3 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Friends of the fluffball
Wild Magazine

Friends of the fluffball

White-fronted plovers breed in summer – the same time many people take their seaside holiday. A significant decline in their numbers means life is hardly ‘a day at the beach’ for these birds

time-read
4 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Wild Magazine

Festive Karoo

On a Christmas holiday in the Karoo, a keen birder and his family soak up the heat in four Wild Card parks. Their reward included special sightings, endless views and a wilderness feeling.

time-read
5 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Love struck
Wild Magazine

Love struck

A leopard mating ritual is a rare and thrilling sight. Even more extraordinary to witness an amorous affair involving three members of this elusive Big Five species in Kruger.

time-read
3 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Challenge the clock
Wild Magazine

Challenge the clock

For centuries Table Mountain National Park has inspired exploration, from hardcore climbing to gentle walks. Now runners and hikers can set a record or push boundaries for a personal best on an epic adventure to the top of 13 peaks.

time-read
4 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Loud and clear
Wild Magazine

Loud and clear

Woodland kingfishers are common in most rest camps in the Kruger National Park. Enjoy their evocative call during the summer months.

time-read
1 min  |
Summer 2019 / 2020
Wild Magazine

BEACH MODELS

Rocky shores and sandy beaches are where you’ll find the African black oystercatcher. Summer is breeding season, so look out for nest scrapes close to rocks and kelp.

time-read
2 mins  |
Summer 2019 / 2020